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Friday, August 2, 2013

Our Classroom Calendar - A bit of History Daily

Every preschool and nursery you'll ever visit will probably always feature a big calendar up on their wall above the circle time rug. In an effort to teach my own children about the months of the year, days of the week and seasons, I too have decided to put one up. Only...after looking long and large, I couldn't find one worth putting up. I don't like the plastic looking things I saw for sale and started investigating how to make my own. After some research, I set my heart on (no surprise here!) Counting Coconuts' DIY version. As Zahavah is younger than Mari-Ann's son was at the time, I made some changes but overall, the concept is the same and they are quite similar.

School Calendar Corkboard/Billboard for Year 2013-2014

Our Classroom Calendar consists of a Cork Billboard (paid $10 for mine) loaded with nomenclature cards and pockets that have been stapled or push pinned into place. All labels were printed on cardstock and laminated for durability. Eventually, I would love to add more elements to our board but for now, I do think we have more than enough covered. I even wondered if I should really include the phases of the Moon on our board but as Zahavah is smitten with the natural satellite, I decided to put it on. Next year, I am hoping to make room/add a board extension for a News pocket and possibly a Conversation Starter/Prompt or Question pocket. It's not that I feel "Z" is too young for these this year; it's simply that the board is already borderline overwhelming for a 2.5 year old. News and conversations can still be done if need be that day without having yet another colorful pocket on the already somewhat busy board.

Zahavah and Adrian woke up one morning and discovered the calendar!
They were thrilled and cannot wait for September now...

Overall, the calendar is intended for use during our "circle time" as an everyday history tool. I tried to make it as interactive as possible with a little charm (we're using an actual Murano glass wine charm) to move from day to day on the big calendar. I also made a bookmark to slide into the day of the week pocket. In the future, two more bookmarks will be added (yesterday and tomorrow). Every so often, Zahavah will also get to change the big month of the year card, season card, and phase of the Moon card. Of course, everyday, she'll be responsible for checking out the weather and choosing the appropriate weather card and putting it on our board.

Murano Wine Charm and plastic Paper Clip moving day to day

Interested in the cards themselves? I thought you might! Here is where I got mine...

I honestly thought these were the best around. They truly show the moon is half bright and half obscured when it's in its first quarter for example. Most cards made it look like the Moon was half gone in that phase and it's just not realistic. From where I am on Earth, I still can see the Moon, it's just not as bright when it's partly obscured for example.

I truly love how Karen Tyler did her Seasons cards. They show the same scenery but during a different season. Simply brilliant. On top of that the setting is simple so you truly notice how the seasons have changed the nature surrounding it. I already owned the album so I simply decided to use these cards for our board but you could do the same. I eventually would love to make my own if I find a sweet spot to photograph for a good change of season. Too bad we left New England! :(

Weather Cards - Sorting Sprinkles

I made these a while back during my son's preschool weather week. I selected the ones I knew we would use and put aside the ones I knew we would not (no sandstorms here). I also added a "partly cloudy" card to the selection. Overall, I kept the selection limited (sunny, cloudy, partly cloudy, rain, thunderstorms, snow, and fog because believe it or not...we get that a lot). I know a lot of you have shown interest in getting a set of these when I first posted about them but truth is, I did not take these pictures and most of them are probably copyrighted; as such I prefer to keep them for my own personal use until I investigate the matter further. :)

Calendar Cards - Free at Counting Coconuts
I'd love to make my own one day but for now, I'm a bit pressed by time and well, somewhat challenged when it comes to editing... :) Besides, some people are truly talented in that domain and provide theirs free of charge so I decided that for now, I'd use theirs. Counting Coconuts has several themed cards available for download so I do believe I'll try to change mine monthly and pick a theme that follows what we're studying that month.

Close-up of the Board...with an admiring Adrian...
who sat and sat pondering why I hadn't put August on the board

So how are you preparing for the upcoming school year? Do you also have a Calendar like we do this year? How does it differ? I'd love to hear from you!

It's our first year using one. I hadn't thought of including one before for some reason but my son has been so intrigued by the passing of time that I had to make one for this year. Not sure if my toddler will really enjoy it but I'm sure she'll learn from it. :)

We have the same kind of idea, but I have two different calendars. I used to teach elementary, so I already had a regular calendar and then I ordered a weather chart for our daughter to track her weather during the week. She loves being able to pick out the weather cards for each day.

That sounds good as well. We used a "regular" calendar up until this year to be honest and didn't even have weather cards! :) We'd just talk about it but I think this year, everyone will be happy about the interactive card rotation just like they are in your household! :)

Thank you. It's a simple start for a tiny toddler and I'm hoping to add more in the years to come (possibly making the month calendar a bit smaller; making it even for sure!). For now, it's well loved and a tool with lots of potential I think.

Thank you for stopping by and pinning Alicia! I hoe you get to make one of these. My children were so excited to see this billboard! :) Come on by anytime to sift through the archives. I've been blogging about 2-3 times/week for a year now so there's quite a few things you might be interested in! :)

It's a 23 x 35" cork board. Not on the small side but then again, I wasn't looking for a small one either! :) I knew I'd put several elements on it and didn't want them to be too small so it had to be a good size.

My 4 yr old daughter has been fascinated with marking off days on our regular calendar so I'm making a big calendar like this for her now. I was thinking of having her add the date each day instead of having them all already up. Is there a reason it's better to just have a marker on the current day instead?

Hi! Thank you for the question. I decided to go with the daily moving of a marker on the calendar for two reason: first, my toddler will be able to move it herself everyday as the way to mark time passing and second because my oldest, now 5, likes and needs to see the big picture. If we were to add the day everyday, he wouldn't get to see the "important events" coming up. For example, if I tell him his grandparents are coming to visit on the 12, he looks forward to the 12 and loves seeing the marker move down closer to the 12 each day. If I went with removing a calendar day sheet or something like that, it wouldn't show the month as much. Hope this helps! :)

Thank you so much! I love this calendar!!!! And the free printouts! WOW! Thanks so so much! I have a question however, do you have any just plain winter themed calendar numbers? Like snow covered trees, snow flakes, snow men, sleds, etc, nothing Christmas? Just wondering. I couldnt find any. Take care! And Thanks so much again!-Geri Fernandez

You're welcome! Glad you like it all. The winter calendar cards are not "out" yet. Cassie at 3 Dinosaurs is planning on making a set though so I would check back in October or November on her website. Royal Baloo might also come up with a set that is not "christmassy" and usually makes visually beautiful calendar cards. I always check these places along with Counting Coconuts for my calendar cards as they provide free cards and save me the work! :) Good luck and thanks for stopping by Geri!

You have a lovely calendar, mines is a little more on the pink side (okay a lot more on the pink side) And we are going with a season them so as the season changes the pictures on the date changes. We also have a mood section on ours so that she can express how she feels throughout the day. I think I am going to add more to it as she learns more.

Pink? Nothing wrong with pink. Actually...I think my daughter would love an all-pink design but my son...not so much I think so I went with the colors of the rainbow to make everyone happy but also to make sure we learn about colors. :) A mood section is great for children to teach them about emotions. I like that. It sounds like you have avery nice calendar too! Here's to a great school year and calendar! :)

This is such a fun, colorful idea and it looks so well-organized! I was just wondering if you ever have any trouble with the push-pins coming/falling out since I would hate to put it all together only to have it fall apart and for us all to be stepping on the push-pins that fall on the floor.

Thank you. To answer your question, no problems so far. I chose a corkboard that is very dense so the pushpins were actually very hard to push in the board.I doubt they would fall. Of course this is not a board you want your children to have access to if you are not around and they tend to put things in their mouth as there are small pieces. You never know if they'll decided to chew on the calendar marker after all! :) The board should also be up on the wall with nothing under so if a pin were to fall, you'd see it right away but like I said, I've had no problems. :)

A miniature calendar could work just as well if space is a problem. If we were to move into a smaller house, I'd probably downgrade the "calendar number cards" in particular. Our board is sized for an entire classroom and I truly only have two children here. We just went big since we could and plan on recycling the big board later. Thanks for stopping by Maria and good luck with your calendar!

Studious & Curious Adrian; 5 years old

Vivacious & Outspoken Zahavah; 3 years old

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